Three sequences for active glutes and safe backbends

// the mother philosophy that came before yoga

Dear Humans,

I’ve been writing to you about my intention to share more yoga philosophy with my students and with this community in the new year.

For me, this has meant re-opening my old YTT manuals and revisiting topics that I may have missed or didn’t fully integrate during my 200 hour training.

It’s amazing, because I only need to go a few sentences into a book on yoga history before I find I need to stop and dive deeper into a word or concept. The history of yoga is so vast and complex that each idea opens up a whole world of research.

My goals hasn’t been to “cram” but rather to move slowly, step by step, and focus on understanding one new thing at a time.

This is also how I try to introduce new concepts to my students. As we know, we don’t have endless time to dissect ideas in a western yoga class. Typically, we are attempting to share a morsel within a few minutes and let that frame our physical practice.

I’ll try to share what I’m learning via this newsletter in much the same way: short, sweet, and one bite at a time. This means I won’t be able to cover the concept in-depth, but I’ll try to give you an overview as I understand it, framing it how I would frame it to my students, and then invite you to do more research if you feel moved.

That’s the beauty of being a student of yoga, there’s always more learning to be done. And please, share your own thoughts and let me know what you’re finding!

The area that’s been sparking my interest over the last few weeks has to do with an ancient Indian philosophy, Samkhya. Samkhya is important to understand as a yoga teacher, because it introduces the framework of belief around which the yoga practice was built.

Samkhya seeks to answer the questions of why do we suffer and how can we become liberated?

Samkhya essentially states that everything in our world is made up of two things: matter or consciousness.

Matter or “Prakrati” is everything in the physical world: our bodies, our clothing, our belongings, our hair, even our thoughts and emotions. And everything that is “matter” will eventually fade and die, to be recycled and brought back in another form. (Think of the leaf that falls to the ground, decomposes, and becomes part of the soil.)

Consciousness or “Purusa” is the spirit. It is the collective consciousness that lives within every living thing. Purusa is the seat of awareness that sits at the base of our mind and watches our thoughts. It is the observer.

While matter is impermanent, Purusa is permanent. Consciousnesses persists and connects each and every living being.

At a very simple level, this understanding of life being made up of “matter” and “consciousness” answers the two questions that Samkhya poses:

• Why do we suffer? Because we’ve come to belief that we are individual and not part of the collective consciousness. Because we’ve attached ourselves to things that are impermenant and let those attachments control our lives and our actions.

• How can we become liberated? By detaching ourselves from Prakrati and tapping back into the collective consciousness. By recognizing that we are not these bodies or even these minds, we are something much bigger than that. That we are not so separate from one another, rather we are all mirrors of each other.

Now that we’ve understand the main concepts of Samkhya, the question becomes: How do we practice releasing our attachments to matter and come into connection with the collective consciousness?

This is where Yoga comes in.

Yoga is the practice. Yoga is the path to follow in order to seek liberation. Yoga seeks to encourage an individual to release Prakrati and tap into Purusa through intentional actions, aka the limbs of yoga.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found it so helpful to understand Samkhya as a bedrock for our Yoga practice. To go even deeper into the roots of Yoga and really get a grasp on how to practice originated and what it really means.

If you want to learn more, I really loved this video.

At the end of the day, yoga is a practice of the mind. Though there are divine elements, yoga isn’t a religion, it simply seeks to understand the nature of the mind and to liberate the mind from the trappings of the ego. To let go of the idea of “self” and come into the idea of “whole.”

Dear humans, I encourage you to sit with this idea, and try to understand what it means for you. When I work with it, I am able to zoom out and see myself in each living thing. This provides me with both empathy and perspective.

Friends, below I have shared with you a standing sequence which focuses on encouraging glute activation so that we can safely find deep backbends. For everyone, I am sharing a mandala flow which is a full set of standing poses taking you on a full circle of the mat. This flow foreshadows the movements in the main flow ahead.

Then, for paid subscribers, I share two more flows! The “mini-flow,” which starts at table top and is a gentle but active way to warm-up. Then a “main flow” which builds on the mandala flow and features deeper backbends as our peak postures.

Humans, let me know how you’re doing. I hope you’re well. And if you’re not, then know that better days are always right around the corner.

Sending you lots of love,

Izzy

Izzy Martens

author, yoga teacher, sequence enthusiast

www.yogahumans.com

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What I Taught in Yoga This Week | January 22, 2025

the write-up:

• three legged dog

• knee to nose

• tiger backbend

• knee to nose

• three legged dog

• low lunge

• high crescent lunge

• heart opener

  • *sweep your arms down by your sides, soften your back knee, pull your shoulder blades together

• one legged mountain

• active dancer’s variation

  • use your glute to lift your back leg into a dancer’s shape

• star pose

• goddess squat

• star pose

• warrior two (face back)

• reverse triangle

• triangle

• reverse warrior

• low lunge

• standing splits

• switch kick

  • *you can simple switch out the feet, or find a handstand hop

• star

• wide legged forward fold

• active half-way lift

• stand

• pivot to pyramid (face front)

  • prayer hands over head

  • coil down, nose to knee

  • you can bring prayer hands behind front knee

  • then coil up

• mountain

• extended mountain

• forward fold

• vinyasa or back to downdog!

Dearest paid subscribers, two more flows! I’m sharing with you the “mini-flow” that I taught at the start of class, after my seated class opening. I also share the “main flow” or peak flow, which gets us into the deep backbends we’ve been working towards. This three-part sequence—mini-flow, mandala flow, main flow—is designed to create a well rounded class and help students feel engagement in their glutes for safe backbends. So don’t forget to cue that glute engagement!